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The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected a request from panel Democrats to have Attorney General Jeff Sessions testify and explain his contacts with the Russian ambassador.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said late Friday that there is no plan for Sessions to come before the committee before his customary testimony at an annual oversight hearing.

Grassley said in a statement that Sessions did the right thing by recusing himself from any investigation into communications between President Donald Trump's aides and Russian officials. The Republican lawmaker complained that Democrats "didn't even have the decency to give him an opportunity to clear up confusion to the statement in writing."

All nine Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked for Sessions to testify before the panel to explain his failure to disclose his conversations with Russia's envoy to the U.S.

In a letter to the committee's Republican chairman, the Democrats said Friday that they welcomed Sessions' decision to recuse himself from any probe that examines communications between Trump's aides and Moscow. But they said significant questions remain unanswered.

The Democrats said Sessions' responses during his confirmation hearing were "at best, incomplete and misleading" and he hadn't come forward to correct the record before his contacts with the ambassador became public.

The lawmakers asked Grassley of Iowa to schedule a hearing with Sessions.